Untarnished Reputation

A few moments ago, I finished reading your wonderful Untarnished Reputation historical novel to my mom.   We both enjoyed it thoroughly.  Through each horse race, tracking the horse thieves and lattice weaving of Bat Masterson's assignment -- we were wide-eyed !!  It is so much fun reading aloud - I've never done that for my mom before - but she was so curious about your book. This was a very special week - my mom - Gwen - had her 89th birthday on August 28th and the reading all week of your book made it splendid, indeed.  Most, bully! Thank you, Terry for this marvelous gift. Now I must read Phyllis Marie for my mom -- she has become quite your fan.  Truly, your writing is brilliant and your imagination - truly creative.  Your storytelling is captivating and wondrous.

Rebecca Rutkowski

I dreamt I went to Hidden Valley again and sat in the sunlit orchestra of my youth in the wood-and-glass library of the York School. The doctor, the benign dictator who forever shaped my musical sensibilities rehearsed the Brahms Serenade in A Major, Op. 16 and although I could play the piece, I could not read the part on the music stand. My oboe stood on its instrument stand in front of me when I wasn't playing, and the reed was wrapped with violet thread. I had only a vague sense of the orchestra that surrounded me, strings, without violins in front of me, flutes to my right, clarinets and bassoons behind me, and horns in the distance somewhere. We were all golden children, sort of a classical music version of Woodstock, but without the rock'n'roll or the mud and the chaos.

Neil Armstrong died today.

My father worked for NASA on the X-15 project at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1960s and the Armstrongs were friends of the family. We attended the same church and my father and Neil were both ushers, as were several other test pilots, so I became an usher so I could hang out with them in the lobby during the sermon and listen to their shop talk. If it wasn't the recent test flight they were talking about, it was the upcoming test.

On test flight days, my mother and brother and I would get up very early, four in the morning, and drive out into the desert to a spot where we could see the flight. We'd watch the designated part of the sky, and pretty soon we could see the B-52 in the distance, followed by a couple of F-104 chase planes.

When the B-52 released the X-15, we would see that extra contrail start and speed away from the bomber as if it were standing still.

There were two basic types of test flights: speed and altitude. On speed flights, the X-15 would rocket past us so fast that it seemed to cover the entire sky in a matter of seconds and disappear on the horizon, but my favorite flights were the altitude tests, because as the X-15 climbed higher and higher it appeared to go slower and slower until it seemed almost to just stop. When it reached its peak it would appear to gain speed and again, disappear on the horizon.

After the flight, my mother would drop us off at school in time for our first classes. That evening, the local paper, the Lancaster Ledger-Gazette would have a big headline about the flight. I'd read all about it with the same enthusiasm as I did when I checked the baseball standings. What I didn't realize at the time was that the entire world was not paying as close attention as I was, as close attention as the citizens of the Antelope Valley. Not until Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff, was my perception brought into line.

Clifton Edwin Publishing Receives 2011 Best of Santa Barbara Award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

NEW YORK, NY, December 9, 2011 -- Clifton Edwin Publishing has been selected for the 2011 Best of Santa Barbara Award in the Book Publishers category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2011 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

CONTACT:
U.S. Commerce Association
Email: PublicRelations@uscaaward.com
URL: http://www.uscaaward.com

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I loved Terry's book!

Here is a message I received on Friday from a reader, Marlow Fisher.

Terry

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I read Phyllis Marie, by Terry Row, in three days and I absolutely loved it.

It is a very beautiful, loving, respectful account of his parents, grand-parents and great-grand-parents. He honors them. And he brings them vividly to life.

He describes the full range of human experience. They lived through world wars, floods in Kansas, homestead land runs in Oklahoma, the introduction of the telephone and electricity and indoor plumbing, and there were childhood passions for the printing press, for airplanes, for photography.

It is a love story overall, Terry's love for his family. His affection for his characters warmed me like a crackling fire on a chilly night.

I have visited the Library of Congress website to read the letters of Aaron Copland, both the transcripts and the images of the actual letters in his handwriting. In one of the earliest letters he is on a ship bound for France. He is about twenty years old. Copland's role could be played by Jimmy Stewart in a Capra film. His tone is so sweet, so "aw shucks," "ma and pa," Americana. A few years later when he wrote Appalachian Spring, that gorgeous Americana ambiance was not a stretch for him, that was his true voice.

While reading Phyllis Marie, I was infused with that same beautiful, gorgeous, authentic, affectionate aura of Americana.

I assume the skeleton of the story is true, that those are the author's family members and that they lived in those places and that they led, more or less, those lives: aviation, photography, printing press, Society of Friends, etc. I assume that what is fiction is the particulars of dialogue that he was not present to hear.

In any case, what is important to me is that there is a strong point of view expressed: the characters are loved by their author.

Congratulations! And thank you.

Clifton Edwin Publishing releases Terry Row's backlist in Kindle and Epub formats

Keeping up with the trend toward books in electronic format, Clifton Edwin Publishing has released Summer Capricorn (2006) and Untarnished Reputation (2009) in both the Kindle and Epub formats. Kindle books are available at Amazon.com, whereas Epub books are available through the ebookstore.sony.com and itunes.apple.com websites.

Each electronic edition, including Phyllis Marie (2011), sells for $2.99. All three books by Terry Row remain available in the traditional perfect paperback size: 5.5” by 8.5.”

Phyllis Marie Garners a San Francisco Book Review

Phyllis Marie

By Terry Row

Clifton Edwin Publishing, $17.95, 380 pages

Amazon Star Rating: 5 out of 5

“Finally it was their turn to take off. The instructor turned, came to a complete stop, waited one extra second, and then pulled back on the stick. Perry felt only a small increase in prop wash, but the volume of noise seemed to drill into his ear canals. Come on, buddy, he thought as the airplane rumbled down the runway. You’re never going to lift this thing off the ground if you don’t give it more juice. At what felt like the last possible moment, the ship lifted off the runway, to Perry’s surprise, reducing the vibrations by seventy-five percent. He flew, for the very first time.”

Perry Row was born to fly, and he gets his chance after the infamously disastrous day of December 7, 1941. Through trial and persistence, struggle and gain, Perry, along with the vast cast of characters shared throughout, reveals a passion and thirst fueling not only his life, but, indeed, that of a universal proportion.

Terry Row has a mesmerizing voice, transporting his readers on a flight of family ties, determination, honor, allegiance and, starkly evident, love. His story of Phyllis Marie spans a multi-generational territory, taking its readers from a warm bedroom shared by a timeless love to 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the desire of young men lining up to defend their freedom and privilege, to the Great Salt Plain, traveling by wagon and horse; we are threaded through time, terrain and theme. Each chapter flips through a different family and their heartfelt predicaments and joys, culminating into one immensely solid family tree.

Although this is a work of fiction, based on a true story, Row has captured every bit of reality onto his worn pages. This story has every bit of blood, sweat, tears, and heart imaginable poured into it. Through an exact execution of detail, character development and story, Row has catapulted himself; he, too, has flown, and hopefully not for the last time.